Ba Ve Countryside
We are leaving Hanoi today to experience some of the North Vietnamese countryside. As I look out at the sea of motorbikes and cars around our luxury bus, another change I notice from prior visits is that so many scooters are driven by women, who have moved from the back seat to the driving position. I wonder if this is indicative of the labor force as well.
The Western side of Hanoi, formerly comprised of small villages, is now new cities of large stores and 4+ story narrow buildings. Further out, we see the beginning of acres of many very tall apartment complexes which are proliferating on the outskirts of the city. A great sea of high rises for the upper middle class. Our guide just told us that there are about 20 high end high rise developments now circling the city. Some are super luxurious with man-made beaches (we can see the palm trees evenly planted along the “shore”) and a self-contained lifestyle with markets and restaurants and personal services. He reported, and I confirmed with AI, that a low level worker will make about $350/month and an office head will make about $1500. An apartment in these complexes cost at least $700/mo to rent with many people working from home. However, many workers still live in family complexes, occupied by generations, crowded but providing lower cost housing and childcare support.
We were also just told that a new industry in this part of the country is the creation of dairy farms, bringing fresh milk to the general population for the first time – the result of which, he reports, is much taller children. And families are willing to pay high prices to ensure that their children drink 1-2 glasses of cow’s milk per day. A quick AI search about this hypothesis shows that children’s heights here have increased but more likely due to general improvements in health and diet, not just from the addition of dairy. I have seen a great amount of cheese products around, including pizza. The traditional Vietnamese diet included beef, pork and chicken but in limited amounts due to cost. I wonder if the addition of milk and cheese into daily diets will also lead to the development of increased cholesterol and heart issues in the population. Time will tell.
On arrival into the Ba Ve area, we first visit the home and tea plantation of a former Viet Kong soldier who proudly displayed his medals and uniform to us, as well as told us of the head wound he received from shrapnel in an encounter with his more Southern countrymen. And he reiterated several time how he bore no ill will toward the Americans who fought against him. The land he owns was part of the post-independence land distribution in which unused government land (which I understand was all the land in the country not being actively farmed or used) was given on some basis to those who requested it.
They have 3 children, 2 of whom live nerby.
Our next stop was the nearby town of Moc, where we are warmly invited into a family house by its owner Mrs. Chin. She has created a cooking school and de facto restaurant for tourists – although she is also a kindergarten teacher and a new school year started earlier this very day so she thought it was auspicious that we were there. I asked how large her class is and she said 30 students. A relative of hers, a teenager named Sophia is there to help with translation and, given her excellent English, I was surprised when she said she only started English in school 3 years ago.
It is hot out and we sit outside under a wooden canopy where we are served great platters of fresh jackfruit and a blue pea blossom tea. We go into the kitchen, sit down with our aprons, and are given local bright yellow turmeric laden rice wrappers to wrap with bowls of chopped vegetables and meat. For me, she prepared a vegan version and together we make fried spring rolls and then, as our second course, wrapped lotus leaves which are then deep fried. We also mixed together into a salad shredded bean sprouts, carrots, jicama, cucumber, green and white onions with peanuts on top.
When we sit down to eat, in addition to our two kinds of fried rolls and shredded salad, we are given fresh pumpkin soup, fried fish cakes, fresh spring rolls with noodles, fried tofu and steamed rice. Everything was delicious. A very enjoyable experience.
After our long and very filling lunch, we went all together for a walk into the peaceful rice fields outside the village which are only a few weeks away from harvestime. It is very hot outside and we are glad, after a memorable and unannounced stop at a local neighbor’s house who makes rice wine, to get back on our air conditioned bus to head to our hotel for the night.
I can’t resist and with the little free time I have in the evening, stop by a Durian Cafe that I had passed a few blocks away. I have never seen such a place, although I know all about and love the very exotic Durian fruit which has such a strong smell it is prohibited from hotels and public spaces. I order what I think is Durian on rice and vegetables but turns out to be a Durian fruit salad, many of the ingredients in which I can not identify – but enjoy. And so to bed.
Lan Ha Bay
I am now in my luxury suite on the Lyra Grandeur, a new ship that explores the inlets of Lan Ha Bay which is attached to the larger and more well known Ha Long Bay. The Ha Long City area has exploded in size as a tourist attraction in the last few years and is now primarily for day trips while the new docks at Lan Ha Bay are primarily used for overnight and multi-day tours of the area. Just about every tourist who comes to Vietnam visits here as it is such an extraordinary place. A large bay with scattered rugged karst mountain tops rising out of the water.
My suite is at the very aft of this beautifully designed vessel with large windows on two sides facing the world famous mountain outcroppings which define the area.
This morning at 7 AM we went out into the water on small wooden boats paddled by the local people, both men and women, 6 of us per boat, into the opening through the rock into a caved now filled with dripping stalagmites to the totally quiet and still inner circle of water. There only the dipping of oars in water can be heard. Someone remarked that there were no birds and I asked about this afterwards and was told this was probably because of the many bats that lived in the caves. There was also much floating circles of foam on the water top which may be related to the jellyfish who appreciate the calm environment.
The afternoon is spent relaxing, swimming off the ship or immersed in the hot pool on board, enjoying the spectacular view around us, and especially the quiet on the water as the sun goes down.
